


The shadow that fell on Beach City

by Milka_Moo



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: Aliens, Alternate Universe, Eldritch Gem AU, Gen, Lovecraftian
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-14
Updated: 2016-04-14
Packaged: 2018-05-30 22:37:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6445066
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Milka_Moo/pseuds/Milka_Moo
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Connie has heard about the weird citizens of Beach City, one she experiences first hand just how strange they are but that's nothing compared to what lurks out on the foggy beach.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The shadow that fell on Beach City

**Author's Note:**

> Trying to give a lovecraftian/eldritch spin on Steven Universe. Wanted to try writing it as a journal entry.

Today... I don't even know where to begin journal.

It's all so much to take in. My gosh, what I saw or what I thought I saw. I'm going crazy, there's no way to explain what happened otherwise.  
Journal as you may well know today was the last day of school before summer vacation, so overall it was pretty boring though I got a lot of reading done, I finished Overneath the Underworld. After my last class I ended up waiting an forty-five minutes before receiving a text from my dad saying he was stuck in traffic and wouldn't be there for at least another hour. I was instructed to keep busy but stay close to the school. Luckily, or should I say unluckily , I knew a book store a block away from the school and decided to head there to see if they had received the last book from The Spirit Morph Saga. I say unlucky because if I hadn't gone there I wouldn't have been led to see what I saw nor would I be grounded now, oh yeah in case I forgot to add I'm grounded for two weeks. But I'll explain that later.

When I reached the store I looked for my book but found out they had just sold the last copy. The nice clerk asked if I wanted to see if any other stores still had any left, I told her yes. It seemed that they were sold out everywhere except one place, the book store in Beach City. The lady told me this while cringing and offered to have them ship it over to her store. I declined because I knew it would take forever. Feeling sad I left the store and started to make my way back to school. I stopped when it started to drizzle and took shelter at a bus station. Two things happened that aligned the fates to me doing something stupid, I make it sound like something from the books I’ve been reading Journal. My phone buzzed and as I read that my dad was still a ways off, the bus to Beach City pulled up. It was stupid I know, but when the driver opened the door, I just stood up and hopped on board. It would only be a fifteen minute ride from here to the Beach City boardwalk, or so I had heard other students saying once during lunch. I would get off; find the store and get my book. Then I would get back on the bus and be back at school with just enough time before my dad arrived.

Strange thing about plans Journal, they never go quite right. The bus ride went without a hitch though I did notice that I was the only non-Beach City citizen on the bus. I noticed something odd about the people they looked normal enough at first glance, but as I watched them during the trip I noticed weird little things. For one none of the ladies seem to wear jewelry, or not any jewelry that counts as my classmate Julie would say. You know like expensive jewelry like diamonds, pearls things like that. Another thing is they always seemed to looking around but in a way like they were afraid of being caught looking at something. The last thing was none of the people on the bus or in fact that little town that called itself a city, wore bright colors. I didn't think much of it at first, who I am to judge I'm just boring old Connie Maheswaran, but now I think I know why they avoid bright colors and seem particularly wary of my sky blue dress. But again at the time I just thought it weird my mom had always told me to stay away from Beach City and its weird-o's.

But I digress, I learned that word last week and I really like it, aside from odd stares from people I made it safely to the boardwalk. I checked my phone to see the time and was shocked to find about ten minutes had passed since I had gotten on the bus not only at the quickness that I had made it in but the difference in what I thought was the time of day. It had stopped drizzling during the trip, but the skies around city were still dark like it was evening. I forgot about that as I begin to walk up and down the strip looking for the bookstore. A bit later I had found it, looking at my phone I calculated I had at least fifty minutes before I had to worry about catching the bus. It traveled every twenty five minutes so I was okay on that front. From outside the store looked small, almost like a large sea cottage turned into a store but even for its size it still carried quite a few of my favorite books and, yes Journal, they had Destiny's End the last book I needed from the Spirit Morph Saga.

I grabbed my book and decided to look around to see if I could find another book to add to my collection. Finding nothing, I headed towards the cashier. While the clerk ringed up my purchase she leered at my dress the whole time. I noticed a strange book behind her. It was interesting because it seemed to be the only book held behind the desk, I asked if I could see it and the woman flinched and slowly reached behind her and groped for the book. She never took her eyes off of me as she handed me the book. The book was bound in some kind of leather and decorated with what look like shiny shards of different stones. The title was hard to read, at first I thought it was another language but after squinting I was able to make out the spindly and curvy writing. It was English and the title was the Cabochonicon. I never got a chance to see inside it, because as soon as I tried to open it the store clerk slammed it shut and told me, I had to leave. It freaked me out I've never seen someone that angry or scared... I'm not sure which.

Journal this is where things started to get weird, I mean weirder than what most of the day had been. The rain had started again except this time it was heavier so I quickly acquired, another new word I like, an umbrella; not umbrella but acquired just to make it clear Journal. I liked this umbrella, it had a light pink rim with a bubble dome that you could see through, it was like exploring some wet alien world . While looking around at the different shops signs I noticed they all seemed to be dim and the colored faded or in some places white letters with dim almost pinkish light; it was mostly the older buildings and business that usually had the pinkish-white signs and letters. That's how I ended up finding the only other bus stop in town which lay near the end of the boardwalk which let out towards the beach. The bus stop stood on the opposite side near the road that went around beach city which I had learned reading the bus map, it really was a small town. I had missed the last bus just three minutes ago but even with the wait I was sure I had enough time. I checked my phone and discovered four texts and one missed call. Luckily the call was only missed by a few minutes and reading the text I found out that dad hadn't made much progress in making it to the school and I was still at the forty-five minute to an hour wait. That I should go the mall and stay there or if I was able go to the school library, they preferred the library. I called my mom told her I had made it to the mall an hour ago and had forgot to tell her, she said she was glad I was okay but we were going to have a talk about communication later, She brought out the Abacus during that talk Journal the freaking Abacus! Lying to her was hard at first but after being stuck waiting for a at least an hour so far I found it felt good Journal; I'm a horrible person I know. With another hour on my hands, dad couldn't drive in the rain not even a drizzle, I set at the bus stop and people watched. At first I watched the people go up and down the boardwalk, the people of Beach city didn't seem so different from everyone else except the weird staring and the lack of bright colors. I did notice they tended to look away from the ocean. The weird thing journal is there was nothing strange about it, a bit foggy but nothing in particular. I spotted a massive light house on the edge of getting bored of figuring out what the different shapes hidden in the fog on the beach were, I started my book.

Before I knew it my bus had arrived. I should have gotten on the bus and went back to school, but something caught my eye, a small bobbing light in the fog. It was the first bright thing I had seen in beach city and I had to know what it was. Without thinking I turn around and left the bus, oh no Journal I just realized I didn't tell the bus driver sorry... It was just the light really fascinated me, so I followed it onto the beach from a distance. I had followed it towards the bottom of the cliff and almost got too close when it suddenly stopped. Then a whole bunch of other lights lit up causing the fog to clear, I saw a man with strangely curly hair in black robes with what looked a purple vortex swirling in the middle of the back. A group of five gathered around him they all had weird robes each with a different color vortex. One of the people called the man Ronaldo, and when he answered I recognized him as the vlogger for Keep it weird. Not that I watch his show, that's for baby's or at least that what Tiffany says. Anyway he and his group started pulling out things from their robes, I couldn't tell what they were but Ronaldo called them offerings to the rock goddesses. I wanted to edge closer but I was too freaked out. I gasped as a shadow appeared from further ahead of the group of weirdos and seemed to head towards them. 

Ronald turned towards me, I thought I was dead until he said who's there and shined his light into the fog. I ducked and tried to stay out of the light. The shadow had stopped approaching, I think the loud voice scared it. Before anyone could do anything headlights appeared out of nowhere and a man yelled out to the group to leave before he called the Police. I've never seen people run that fast. Dang kids I heard the man yell as he drove off after them. I couldn't move, I didn't want to get in trouble. I waited what seemed like forever, before I begin to walk. I wanted to go home now, I started towards what I thought was boardwalk, the fog had thickened without the lights of Ronaldo and his group, I think they’re called a cult. I tripped and when I looked down I saw I had slipped on a can. I picked it up and studied it but couldn't make out the words because the fog was getting really thick. Even though I was lost in the fog and panicking all I could think of was reading what the can was. I strained to read it and slowly I made it was a motor oil. 

Now Journal you might be asking how did I suddenly read in the fog and that I'm about to get to. See the reason is without me noticing in my panic a pink light had slowly appeared, looking up I saw the shadow, a few feet away, with a dim pink light in its middle. I dropped the can and the shadow quickly put out the light. A boy called out to me, can you believe it another kid was out on the beach. I was happy for a moment Journal, I felt like another there was another weird kid like me. I shouted back and was blinded when a flashlight beam hit me in the face. It hurt , and as I rubbed my eyes I saw the boy lower the light a little. He didn't say sorry but he held his head down. We both asked each other at the same time what we were doing here. We both laughed. Then it grew quiet. I didn't know what to say. Here was a boy talking to me. He spoke first, he told me he was Steven and he lived around here, he pointed at the silhouetted Cliff-side and its weird giant lighthouse. I introduced myself and started babbling about my whole weird day like an idiot but he didn't seem to mind. He was weird, like his clothes weren't exactly matching he had a faded red jacket with a yellow star down the middle and wore khaki shorts and flipflops. He also wore a old newsie cap. He smiled when he noticed me looking at him. I don't know what it was about his face it was cute yet there was something off I don't want to sound dramatic but a I'll use the line from The unfamiliar familiar "there was something beautifully nonhuman" about him. Okay maybe I have a crush, but a boy talked to me! 

I noticed he was picking up the items left by the group and I helped him. He didn't talk much, but it was still kind of fun. The group’s offerings were a bunch of random things like comics, cans of motor oil and spaghetti, stuff like that, but I was having too much fun with Steven to care. Only the buzzing of my phone ruined the moment, it startled Steven and I both. He asked if that was my communication device, he was weird but cute Journal. It was my dad he was only thirty minutes away, I had forgotten about the bus. I turned to tell Steven I had to leave and saw he was gone. Several yards ahead I saw the same strange pink glow from before but this time it was joined with four other glows. They were purple, two red, and a pale turquoise. I knew the pink glow had to be from Steven but I'm wasn’t sure of where it was coming from because it wasn't from his flashlight. I walked towards Steven and the lights and as I got closer the glows star started to take on silhouettes. The purple one looked short and hunched over; the red ones seemed to be coming from the same silhouette and it looked tall, like taller than a basketball player it's arms were long and the glow came from its two ginormous hands; the teal glows silhouette was odd because even though a lot shorter than the tall thing it seemed to have highest glow yet all I saw was a roundish shape I assumed was a head, for some reason I couldn't make out the body maybe they were leaning over Steven. I was about to call out when I heard a noise, I can't describe it Journal. You'll think I'm crazy if I try to, but it sounded like rocks smashing together but also the tinkle of glass with a touch of volcanic eruption, it sounded musical, I swear to gosh that I just stood there and listened. 

I was suddenly grabbed from behind and I screamed. The glows seemed to blink away for just a second before they surrounded me and the person that had grabbed me. But they didn't come close, It's okay said the voice of the man from earlier. It's a child, those loons from early are gone. I looked up and saw a man who was kind of fat and balding but what was left of his hair was long, he had a dad look to him, he wasn't talking to me though. I heard Steven before I saw him as he stepped forward into my line of vision he called the man, Dad. But what really caught my attention was what I saw as I looked closer, Steven had his jacket open and his shirt up, the pink glow was coming from him, or his stomach! Instead of a belly button he had a glowing pink crystal, as I stared I noticed the rest of his stomach had what looked like weird symbols made of the same stone sticking out of it. I gasped and Steven quickly pulled down his shirt. Connie, he had said but his voice sounded odd almost like that weird sound. He tried walking towards me and I backed into his dad, everything started going fuzzy and I fell. I couldn't breath, I was having a panic attack. I saw the teal glow lean towards me. That face, I can't forget it even though I only saw it for a split second; it looked like if a vampire had grown a sharp straight beak instead of a nose and its eyes were all black except for slightly glowing teal irises. I fainted.

When I woke up, I found myself in my dad's car. He had gotten a call from a Mr. Universe saying he had saw me slip and fall on the beach. When I got home I told my parents only what sounded normal and got grounded but not before the Abacus was brought out, I really hate that Abacus. Then I was sent to my room and now I'm writing in you. I know what I saw sounds crazy journal but I'm gonna get to the bottom of this. When I can, I'm going back! Oh shoot I left my umbrella there too…. I’m definitely going back.

**Author's Note:**

> So that's that. It was fun I have a whole bunch of ideas about this AU so if you have questions feel free to ask. I might explore more of this AU but probably not as journal entries.


End file.
